MUMBAI, India (CNS) -- A court in western India has initiated an investigation into whether Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai and two of his auxiliary bishops failed to take action over the alleged sexual abuse of a minor.

ROME (CNS) -- Catholic bishops across Europe encouraged their faithful to go to the polls in late May to elect members of the European Parliament who would promote unity and take seriously the power of the European Union to do good in the world.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis led thousands of pilgrims in prayer for a Spanish missionary sister killed in Central African Republic.
While greeting French pilgrims attending his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square May 22, the pope said he was saddened to hear of the brutal murder of Daughter of Jesus Sister Ines Nieves Sancho, a 77-year-old Spanish missionary who was killed May 20 outside her convent in Nola, Central African Republic.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Holy Spirit gives Christians the courage and the strength needed to engage in a loving dialogue with God that is like the dialogue of a child with his or her father, Pope Francis said.

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Steps to open avenues for people-to-people diplomacy would go a long way to tamp down tensions between the United States and Iran, said a U.N. representative of Pax Christi International.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The withdrawal of nutrition and hydration from a patient whose body can absorb them is a "serious violation" of the person's dignity, said two Vatican officials.
"The continuation of assistance is an unavoidable obligation," said Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, and Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Any time money changes hands, there is a potential for financial misconduct, but the leaders of the Vatican's Financial Information Authority said the Holy See has made enormous strides in reducing its risks.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The task of journalism is to seek the truth, which requires humility and freedom of the press, Pope Francis told foreign correspondents working in Italy.
"At a time when many spread fake news, humility keeps you from peddling food spoiled by disinformation and invites you to offer the good bread of truth. The humble journalist is a free journalist: free from pressures, free from biases," he said, adding that such freedom also required courage.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican's highest court cleared a Vatican official accused of the crime of solicitation in the confessional.
The court, the Apostolic Signature, the Vatican's highest court, said May 17 that it finished an "administrative penal process" of Father Hermann Geissler, an official at the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who had been accused of "a grave delict."

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When Pope Francis makes his 30th international trip, visiting Romania in late May, he is likely to receive a different, more reserved welcome than St. John Paul II did 20 years ago, said an expert in Catholic-Orthodox relations.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Christians recognize life's great paradox that so much evil and temptation exist in the world, but that God is always present, too, ready to help and give people the strength to persevere, Pope Francis said.

MANCHESTER, England (CNS) -- An Islamic militant has posted a video on the internet boasting that he has arrived in Canada to kill Asia Bibi.
The death threat comes a week after Bibi, a Catholic mother of five, was permitted to leave Pakistan for Canada to join her family at a secret address.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis advanced the sainthood causes of four men and four women, including Blessed Dulce Lopes Pontes, the "Mother Teresa" of Brazil.
The pope signed the decrees May 13 during a meeting with Cardinal Angelo Becciu, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes. The Vatican published the decrees May 14.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis expressed his closeness to and prayers for the victims of a shooting at a Catholic Church in Burkina Faso, which claimed the lives of six people.
"The Holy Father has learned with sorrow about the news of the attack on the church in Dablo, Burkina Faso. He prays for the victims, for their families and for the entire Christian community in the country," Alessandro Gisotti, interim director of the Vatican press office, tweeted May 13.

Rome, Italy, May 13, 2019 CNA.- Cardinal Konrad Krajewski climbed down a manhole Saturday to restore the power supply to a disused, Italian state-owned property in Rome where many homeless persons have been living.

Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina, May 12, 2019 CNA.- Pope Francis has given the green light for Catholics to organize pilgrimages to Medjugorje, a site of alleged Marian apparitions, though the Church has not yet given a verdict on the apparitions' authenticity.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The priesthood is not a "cultural association or a union," but a ministry of mercy anchored on Christ's mission to bring hope to the downtrodden and comfort to those who suffer, Pope Francis told new priests.

ROME (CNS) -- A significant rupture between Orthodox churches in Ukraine has brought the official theological dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox to a standstill, according to a Vatican official involved in the talks.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Parishes and dioceses are now allowed to organize official pilgrimages to Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, but it must be clear that the Catholic Church has not recognized as authentic the alleged Marian apparitions there.

ROME (CNS) -- Back in Rome less than 24 hours after visiting refugees in camps in Greece, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski turned on some lights and found himself being threatened by Italy's deputy prime minister.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In a world marked by violence, conflict as well as material and spiritual poverty, men and women need the Gospel message of hope, Pope Francis told members of the U.S.-based Papal Foundation.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis told the heads of women's religious orders from around the world they need to send sisters on assignments that truly serve the church and those in need, and not agree to requests for "maids."

Vatican City, May 9, 2019 CNA.- New Vatican norms for the Church’s handling of sex abuse, issued Thursday, place seminarians and religious coerced into sexual activity through the misuse of authority in the same criminal category as abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis has revised and clarified norms and procedures for holding bishops and religious superiors accountable in protecting minors as well as in protecting members of religious orders and seminarians from abuse.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis' new norms on protecting minors and strengthening accountability are the latest steps in driving home the message that the days of keeping abuse allegations covered up or ignored are over, said the Vatican's top abuse investigator.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Visiting the small Catholic communities in Bulgaria and North Macedonia offered an opportunity to encourage the faithful to remember God's miracle of being able to feed a multitude with just a few loaves and fishes, Pope Francis said.

MANCHESTER, England (CNS) -- Pakistani authorities freed Asia Bibi, a Catholic woman acquitted of blasphemy, and she has flown to Canada to join her family at a secret address.
Her release was confirmed May 8 by Wilson Chowdhry of the British Pakistani Christian Association, who has been in almost daily contact with Ashiq Masih, Bibi's husband.

ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM NORTH MACEDONIA (CNS) -- The commission Pope Francis appointed to study the history and identity of women deacons did not reach a unanimous conclusion about whether deaconesses in the early church were "ordained" or formally "blessed," the pope said.

ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM NORTH MACEDONIA (CNS) -- Pope Francis told reporters May 7 he had been kept informed about Jean Vanier's failing health and had phoned him a week before his death.
"He listened to me, but he could barely speak. I wanted to express my gratitude for his witness," Pope Francis said May 7, the day Vanier died in Paris.

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (CNS) -- Arriving in Skopje, with its skyline dotted by minarets and domes, Pope Francis told civic leaders that the country's ethnic and religious diversity is a "precious patrimony" to be appreciated and treasured.

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (CNS) -- Pope Francis went to the tiny Balkan nation of North Macedonia to pay tribute to a tiny saint who accomplished big things: St. Teresa of Kolkata.
Mother Teresa was born Agnes Ganxhe Bojaxhiu to Albanian parents in Skopje Aug. 26, 1910, so after paying the obligatory formal visit to North Macedonia's president, Pope Francis went May 7 to the memorial and museum built on the site of the church where she was baptized. The church was later destroyed in an earthquake.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis has invited bishops of the Ukrainian Catholic Church to the Vatican in July to find ways the church can best serve their people, peace and the Gospel.
The pope's desire for the meeting, set for July 5-6, is "a sign of his closeness to the Ukrainian Catholic Church" in Ukraine and other parts of the world, the Vatican press office said in a communique May 4.

RAKOVSKI, Bulgaria (CNS) -- In the Catholic heart of Bulgaria, Pope Francis celebrated a special Mass for 245 children receiving their first Communion and thanked them for helping him, their parents and grandparents remember their own first Communion.

SOFIA, Bulgaria (CNS) -- Twelve boys and girls wearing white T-shirts and dark pants sang for Pope Francis at a refugee center on the outskirts of Sofia.
Their songs were cheerful and the drawings they gave the pope were chock full of smiles and hearts, but their parents' letters to Pope Francis contained appeals for help. Ismael Taha Saber, a 42-year-old father of six from Mosul, Iraq, was one of those who wrote to the pope for help finding a permanent home elsewhere after being in Bulgaria for three years.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNS) -- Catholic leaders canceled Sunday Masses as Sri Lanka's churches remained closed for a second week for fear of new terrorist attacks after the Easter Sunday suicide bombings that killed more than 250 people.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- As the sounds of music and applause echoed throughout the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, the Catholic Church in Mexico celebrated the first beatification of a laywoman in the country.

SOFIA, Bulgaria (CNS) -- In a country that has seen many of its citizens emigrate in search of work and a better life, Pope Francis asked Bulgarians to be welcoming of and sympathetic to the migrants and refugees who arrive in their country hoping to get to Western Europe.

Dublin, Ireland, May 2, 2019 CNA.- The leader of a new political party that spans both Ireland and Northern Ireland promised to uphold the right to life as a key value at the party’s launch on Tuesday.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- God never tricks, traps or tempts his children to sin or commit evil, Pope Francis said.
God is with his people every step of the way -- during times of joy and sadness, triumph and tribulation -- and he always helps lead people away from the devil and his temptations, the pope said during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square May 1, the feast of St. Joseph the Worker.

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Apr 30, 2019 CNA.- When Francisco Javier Olivera was born, his mother offered him to the Virgin Mary, praying that he would become a missionary in Asia.
Olivera’s mother told him about the consecration after he was ordained a priest in Japan 22 years ago. Since then, he has served as a missionary, not only in Japan, but in China and Mongolia as well.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, named a new director and editorial board for its women's magazine, "Women-Church-World."
The announcement came a little more than one month after the magazine's founder and former director, Lucetta Scaraffia, resigned along with her editorial staff, claiming a lack of trust and support from the new management at the newspaper.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Christians must allow themselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit if they expect to live a Christian life, Pope Francis said.
Only through the Spirit can men and women "rise from our limitations, from our deaths," the pope said in his homily April 30 during morning Mass at the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

BANGKOK (CNS) -- Several experts believe the threat to churches in South and Southeast Asia has increased following the Easter bomb attacks that killed more than 250 people and injured 500.
Churches in those regions -- which have 150 million Catholics and other Christians -- have been the focus of attacks in a growing number of countries in recent years, including fatal bomb attacks on churches in the Philippines and Indonesia by Islamic radicals in the past 12 months.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNS) -- Fears of suicide bomb attacks kept many Christians and Muslims away from churches and mosques for Sunday Mass and Friday prayers a week after the Easter bombings.
The Catholic Church halted Masses and Sunday schools until security improves after terror attacks killed more than 250 people April 21; the gates of churches were closed with padlocks, reported ucanews.com. Many mosques canceled Friday prayers April 26 in solidarity with churches.

Paris, France, Apr 28, 2019 CNA.- As fire ravaged the roof of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris earlier this month, one artist from Ecuador used her skills to express the grief that she and so many people throughout the world felt as the beautiful building burned.

Vilnius, Lithuania, Apr 28, 2019 CNA.- Among Catholic devotions, the Divine Mercy message is well-known: the iconic image of Christ, with rays of red and white pouring from his heart; St. Faustina, called the “Apostle of Divine Mercy;” and the Basilica of Divine Mercy in Krakow, Poland.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Christian hairdressers, beauticians and barbers can live their faith by being kind and courteous to their clients and cutting out the gossip and petty chitchat, Pope Francis said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Polish Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the former archbishop of Krakow and longtime secretary to St. John Paul II, celebrated his 80th birthday April 27, ending his eligibility to vote in a conclave.